The Fernando Rodney that Angels fans wouldn't recognize from the past two seasons just kept rolling Wednesday in Detroit.

Tampa Bay's new closer mowed down Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder and Jhonny Peralta in the ninth for his third save, closing out a 4-2 victory after the Rays turned a 1-hit shutout bid by Justin Verlander into four runs in the top of the ninth.

Rodney, filling in for injured Kyle Farnsworth, has become a strike thrower for Manager Joe Maddon. In four outings, Rodney has allowed no hits and no walks in 2 2/3 innings. His first two saves (and a victory) came against the Yankees, so no one can say he's picking on the weak.

Tampa Bay is off to a 4-1 start, and Rodney has had a big hand in each victory. Give Maddon and pitching coach Jim Hickey some credit for harnessing Rodney's tendency to beat himself, at least for now, by avoiding those maddening first-batter walks that marked his Angels tenure.

Fernando Rodney's two-year stay with the Angels did not go well. But it's to his new team, the Tampa Bay Rays, that Rodney is apologizing.

Rodney and one of his agents, Juan Nunez, called Tampa Bay Times beat writer Marc Topkin to "say sorry" for the 2009 incident in which Rodney (then a member of the Detroit Tigers) threw a ball into the press box at Tropicana Field. As the chairman of the Tampa chapter of the BBWAA, Topkin was involved with reporting to MLB on the 2009 incident for which Rodney drew a three-game suspension.

The incident came after Rodney had allowed two runs in the ninth inning before closing out a 4-3 Tigers victory over the Rays. Rodney stranded the tying and go-ahead runs on base (any of this sound familiar, Angels fans?) when he got the final out on a ground out -- then took the ball from the first baseman and fired it into the press box behind home plate.

No one was hit by Rodney's heave (insert your own punchline here).

Rodney did not show a lot of remorse at the time, using as his defense "I didn't try to hit anybody."

According to ESPN Deportes, Fernando Rodney said he has signed or will sign a one-year deal with the Rays. Here's the translation of the report. Except, since signing Fernando Rodney never makes any sense, let's go ahead and translate the report from Spanish to Croatian to Chinese to Turkish to English and see what we get:

Santo Domingo - Dominican ease on Thursday, Fernando Rodney, was with Tampa Bay, and said the team will want to be closer to the opportunities.

"These approvals, God permitting, signed a year, will be in January, the Tampa BayGod gave me something better will continue to strive to see, said:" Rodney semi-final series before the third game söyledimAssociated Press, Dominican winterbaseball.

Rodney, 34, the last two seasons, the Los Angeles Angels have been dismissed,while to recover after 37, as recently as the 2009 Detroit Tigers job.

Worth the beam of hope on the effectiveness of the Dominican Republic back, at every stage of ????? close to last year's event.

Based on the results, from Anaheim to Atlanta, maybe we shouldn't have 23-year-old closers.

Craig Kimbrel of the Braves was having a dominant season, but he blew two of his final three save opps as Atlanta played itself out of the NL Wild-card spot. He had 46 saves, but Braves fans will remember the three he couldn't convert in September.

The Angels' Jordan Walden, forced into the closer's role early by Fernando Rodney failure, wasn't dominant, but still was having a nice rookie season -- until Walden melted down in his final two appearances, against Oakland, while the Angels still had a chance, and Texas on the final night of the season.

Before those two disasters, Walden was 1-0 and 6 for 6 in save situations in September, allowing one earned run in 8 2/3 innings.

Angels infielder Maicer Izturis is out of the starting lineup for the second consecutive game with a recurring problem with the ball of his right foot. Izturis missed a couple games earlier this month as well.

Angels manager Mike Scioscia said Izturis is available off the bench tonight and should be back in the lineup for this weekend's series against the Dodgers.

"It's not too serious, just a little uncomfortable," Scioscia said. "I think we expect him in the lineup this weekend."

Izturis has already played more games this year (67) than he did last year (61) when he went to the DL twice. He has started at leadoff 46 times and batted .318 (62 for 195) there, helping solve a glaring problem from last season.

Meanwhile, Fernando Rodney felt fine after throwing in the bullpen before Tuesday's game. He will repeat the bullpen session Friday and then the Angels will decide if he is going to need a minor-league injury-rehabilitation assignment before returning to the active roster.

We just spent two days mocking the Angels for their inability to hit home runs and reminding Vernon Wells that, at his current pace, he'll make $364,383 per hit this season.

And now comes the news that old Crooked Hat has been placed on the disabled list. With what? A torn rotator cap? Or should that be torn rotated cap?

Yes, Fernando Rodney makes himself the easy target of jokes by walking the first batter he faces roughly 90 percent of the time and dressing like a 14-year-old boy.

Seriously, while Rodney's out, here's hoping the Angels perform a lidotomy on the guy.

His 4.09 ERA and K-BB ratio of 18-15 won't be missed on this trip. But the lost image of Rodney peering in from the mound -- as his hat peers into the first-base dugout -- will leave a hole in our hearts.

The Angels made a DL move before Monday's game in Seattle -- but it did not involve injured third baseman Alberto Callaspo (throwing the ball around in the outfield at Safeco Field right now).

Instead, reliever Fernando Rodney was placed on the DL and right-hander Bobby Cassevah was recalled from Triple-A Salt Lake. Rodney did not travel with the team to Seattle. Instead he stayed behind in Southern California to have a strained upper back examined.

"Fernando had been dealing with this on and off the past couple weeks," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of Rodney who has a 2-3 record, 4.09 ERA, three saves and three blown saves in 26 appearances this season.

"When he didn't pitch for five or six days, it settled down and he felt good. Then he pitched in the Tampa series (Wednesday) and it flared up again. He had a lot of tests today and the doctors decided the best course of action was to back-date this DL move and give him the nine or 10 days."

Rodney will be eligible to return on June 24. Cassevah was 1-3 with a 4.64 ERA in 18 appearances for Triple-A.